


On the End and Beginning

by alien_turnip



Series: Deliberation [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:28:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29579592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alien_turnip/pseuds/alien_turnip
Summary: Once again, Justice stood amidst a sea of corpses. A journey began.
Relationships: Anders & Justice (Dragon Age), Anders/Hawke (Dragon Age), Anders/Justice (Dragon Age), Anders/Male Hawke, Anders/Male Hawke/Justice (Dragon Age)
Series: Deliberation [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2173116
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	On the End and Beginning

Once again, Justice stood amidst a sea of corpses.

Memories rushed back as he raked his eyes over the surrounding scene. Broken plate armors and torn robes, a mix-match of insignia. _Venatori. Zealots. Hired hands. Those who asserted their own twisted Justice on a lawless land._

Frozen expressions of pain, horror and rage on lifeless faces. _They wanted to kill us, or take us alive. Get the abomination to The Elder One, they’d said._

Blood-drenched sand, caked into chunks of red, grating his face and burning the corners of his eyes. _The Western Approach. We wanted to get to Adamant. Find Hawke. Varric was wrong, he could not have been lost._

A pain in his heart, unabating. Justice looked down at his chest, and saw the protruding hilt of a knife.

_They got to us at the end. I was ready to die. To give myself away so that Anders could live. Protect him at all costs._

He wrapped his hand around the hilt and pulled. The weapon slid out easily, half the blade cleanly cut off as if swallowed by the Fade inside his body. Must be, since his heart was still beating. His flesh closed and mended itself into a scar, a faint blue glow edging around the wound before disappearing, but the pain still hadn’t faded. Emptiness throbbed and spread from his heart to his head and soul, splitting his ears with a roaring silence.

He knew what was missing.

“Anders?” Justice called out to himself, voice hoarse as he tried to raise it above his growing panic. There was no answer.

_This can’t be._

“Anders!” he called again, this time to the Void. Where Justice should have felt Anders’ presence whenever he took control was now a dead calmness: for the first time since forever, their shared mind was toiling with Justice’s thoughts alone.

“No…” he whispered, hating the fact that his voice could be heard by his ears, that his hands could tremble, that his legs could stand shakily on the sandy ground. This was not right. This was not his place. The fight was over. Anders should have been here.

But Anders was not here. Justice was surrounded by death, around and within, but a death that was not his own.

He wished that it was.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and thank you for reading until the end! As you can see, this is the prologue for my own little AU, after I stumbled upon many fanfics where Justice sacrificed himself during a mortal situation to save Anders. I've been wondering what a reverse situation might lead to, and the idea stuck to my head. I posted this chapter on Tumblr and got encouraged to write more, so I drafted out some plans, and here I am! 
> 
> I'm really feeling like sailing out to the Amaranthine Ocean on a meager canoe right now, but there are a couple of reassurances: This story has been completely outlined (vaguely, but it's here!), and I am a stubborn person. I'll post it under the form of a series, each story exploring a different theme of Justice's new journey. It won't necessarily mean that the stories can be read separately, but each theme will have its own closure. Which also means that my creative process can be less straining, I hope! I'm still new to this, as much as I don't want to be. 
> 
> In any case, I hope you guys like the beginning and keep an eye out or what to come next. This story is Justice-centric, but will deal a lot with Justice's relationship with a non-mage Hawke and romanced Anders, as well as the theme of grief and self-discovery during the timeline of Inquisition. They are heavy themes that need to be handled carefully, with deliberation, and I can only promise to do my best.
> 
> Oh, and, there will be more side characters coming!


End file.
